California Apparel News

In October, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was on hand at the California Market Center to address the Los Angeles apparel industry on the opening day of Los Angeles Fashion Market, much like his predecessor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who also helped kick off market weeks.

But while both Garcetti and Villaraigosa (and, indeed, former mayor James Hahn) acknowledged the impact of Los Angeles’ fashion industry on the local economy, Garcetti opened his speech by declaring himself part of the local community—“a member of the family, so to speak,” he said.

Garcetti’s great-grandfather was a tailor in Los Angeles who began making uniforms for troops during World War I. His son, Harry Roth, expanded the business to fine men’s suits under the name Louis Roth clothing, and Garcetti grew up visiting his grandfather’s factory in downtown Los Angeles.

“I saw what it was to have a family business, to struggle but also have success, too,” he told the crowd at the CMC. “I know that Los Angeles can make the finest clothes anywhere in the world, we can design the finest clothes anywhere in the world, we can have the textiles that inspire and move the world, as well.”

When he was elected in May, Garcetti took office at a time when the economy was recovering—but much more slowly than people expected. Calling the local textile and apparel industry “a cornerstone of our economy,” which “creates jobs and expands prosperity,” Garcetti vowed to “put the recession in the rear-view mirror.”
The new mayor inherited a fledging effort to bolster Los Angeles’ reputation as a design capital and a garment-production hub. The Made in LA/Designed in LA campaign highlights the city as an apparel-manufacturing center and as a design center that sets the trends seen—and made—around the world.

“With wages rising in Asia and dramatic fluctuation in fuel costs, we have circumstances on our side,” Garcetti said in October. “Combined with our natural advantages—with our status as a creative capital in film, music, TV; and the nation’s leading center for contemporary art; the technology explosion that we’re enjoying here—this is now one of the best cities to be a tech start-up—the intersection of fashion—and with these strengths, I think, we’re poised to put Paris and Milan in the rear-view mirror, too.”